Around Town: March 2-4

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It’s just the second day of March and yesterday sure felt like spring! So consider enjoying the first weekend of the month with one of these DC nonprofits …

Northeast Performing Arts Group (Woodson High School Auditorium, 5500 Eads Street NE)

See how today’s youth overcome the destructive forces of color bias and create hope for humanity in ColorStruck: With the Skin I’m In!, an electrifying dance musical on Friday at 11:30 and 7:00 PM. Come to be entertained and uplifted by performers ranging from ages 3 to 25.

Bowen McCauley Dance (The Kennedy Center: Terrace Theater, 2700 F Street NW)

BMD presents “Le Sacre du Printemps + More” on Friday at 7:30 PM, followed by a Gala Celebration with the artists and fans; nab your gala tickets right here!

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In The News …

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Unemployment Still on the Rise in DC (DC Fiscal Policy Institute): The District ended 2011 with an average yearly unemployment rate of 10.3 percent, slightly higher than the rate for 2010 and far higher than that for 2007 before the start of the recession. This is a sign that economic weakness continues to affect DC residents.” Workers ages 16 to 24 still have the highest unemployment rate (17.4), but this same demographic also saw a drop from 2010 to 2011 — the only group to do so. On the flip side, the rate for residents with a high school diploma continued to rise: from 9.7 in 2007 to 25.3 in 2011.

The report concludes that “the economic recovery is far from complete, so it is important to consider policies to support these populations with high unemployment rates.”

The Helen Hayes Awards Nominations Are Announced (Washingtonian Blog): Special congratulations to the three Catalogue nonprofit theater companies that received nominations for their 2011 productions. TheatreWashington, also a Catalogue nonprofit, announced the nominations this past Monday. Synetic Theatre nabbed fifteen nominations for a single production, their dynamic and wordless King Lear. Adventure Theatre received thirteen nobs in total, including nine for A Year With Frog and Toad and three nominations in the Outstanding Production: Theatre for Young Audiences category. And Woolly Mammoth Theatre received eight nominations, including nobs for Director, Lead Actor, and Production for A Bright New Boise.

With Few Other Options, More Low-Income Patients Visit ER for Dental Care (PBS via DCentric): “More Americans are visiting the emergency room because of toothaches and other routine dental problems — at 10 times the cost of preventative care and with far fewer treatment options than a dentist’s office,” according to a new report from the Pew Center on the States. From 2006 to 2009, the number of emergency room trips for dental care went up by 16% and the trend seems to be continuing. And the costs of that trend are high: “a routine teeth cleaning that could prevent future dental problems can cost up to $100, as compared to $1,000 for ER treatment for untreated cavities and infections.” You can learn more about our nonprofit free (and mobile) clinics right here.

Battle to Graduate

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From “Battling Homelessness, Crime On The Path To Graduation” on WAMU 88.5′s Morning Edition:

Homelessness often insurmountable for high school students

Staying in school with an ever-changing address hasn’t been easy for Christopher. That’s because his mother had a hard time holding down a job and they frequently couldn’t pay the rent.

“For the most part, things stayed in containers, so all I had to do was store some trophies here, put some papers there, done,” he says. “My room is packed up perfectly ready to go.”

Christopher also had to ration food, and hide the fact that he couldn’t afford to do laundry more than once a month. [...]

School and other social support systems crucial

Children who are homeless are much more likely to drop out; one study shows that only 50 percent of children who are homeless for some period of high school will graduate. Christopher?s positive attitude has been tested. He has to travel farther and get to school earlier now to use the internet. Sometimes it gets to be too much.

WAMU also profiles Travaris, who is about to graduate from high school at 22 years old after spending 3 years in prison. But despite the financial and psychological challenges, he “comes to school on time every day and stays after class to complete assignments [and] mentors other students.” He attends Luke C. Moore Academy, which offers a second chance to at-risk students, and Christopher is set to graduate from Hospitality High School and continue on to Michigan State. The obstacles for these students are markedly different — and the supports that they needed (and need) to overcome them are not strictly academic. So how can we ensure that students have the tools that they need to get to class and be free to learn, be that a mentor or clean clothes?

Learn more about our enrichment-focused education non-profits here and get to know our human service organizations that are dedicated to kids and families.

Aging At Home

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From “A Shift From Nursing Homes to Managed Care at Home” in the New York Times:

Faced with soaring health care costs and shrinking Medicare and Medicaid financing, nursing home operators are closing some facilities and embracing an emerging model of care that allows many elderly patients to remain in their homes and still receive the medical and social services available in institutions. [...]

In the newer model, a team of doctors, social workers, physical and occupational therapists and other specialists provides managed care for individual patients at home, at adult day-care centers and in visits to specialists. Studies suggest that it can be less expensive than traditional nursing homes while providing better medical outcomes. [...]

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Each Tomorrow

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A Psalm of Life

Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today. [...]

Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

– American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, born today in 1807

Around Town: February 24-26

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Good morning, Greater Washington! What might strike your fancy this weekend?

NATURE …

Meet at the intersection of Anacostia Avenue NE and Douglas Street NE for a Nash Run Trash Trap Cleanup with the Anacostia Watershed Society on Saturday at noon; these traps prevent the spread of trash without injuring or harming wildlife like fish from moving freely about the river (be sure to RSVP!). And on Sunday at 10:00 AM, join Potomac Conservancy for the monthly cleanup day at Fletcher’s Cove; this cleanup is open to all ages and the Conservancy will provide all the necessary supplies.

DANCE …

Lucy Bowen McCauley, artistic director of BMDC, will perform in Perspectivoyage, a new work created with her “artistic blind dates” Matthew Mann and David Robb at INTERSECTIONS: A New America Arts Festival at the Atlas this Friday at 6:00 & 8:30 PM. INTERSECTIONS continues through March 11, so be sure to head over to H Street! On Saturday at 8:00 PM and Sunday at 2:00 & 5:00 PM, join CityDance Ensemble for a special open house performance in the new Studio Theater and catch a glimpse into the School & Conservatory; call (202) 347-3909 to learn more. And on Saturday at 8:00 PM, Joy of Motion Dance presents Nomad Dancers’ CARAVANSARY, where dancers meet on the path of rhythm; nab your tickets here.

MUSIC …

On Saturday at 8:00 PM, the National Philharmonic presents the six celebrated Brandenburg Concertos by J. S. Bach, which display a light side of Bach’s genius and each highlight a different instrumental combination; tickets are available right here. The American Youth Philharmonic present works by Verdi, Tchaikovsky, von Suppe, Schubert, and Brahams in the AYSO and AYCO Concert, “Fate’s Fortune,” side by side with musicians from the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra; more information right here!

In The News …

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DC schools with more low-income, academically troubled students should get more money, panel recommends (DC Schools Insider): “The 15-member [Public Education Finance Reform Commission] panel concluded its work last week with a series of recommendations to the Gray administration [including]: add an additional “weight” to the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula so that schools receive more money for serving larger numbers of students who are both from low-income households.” The panel also recommended a year-long study on the real costs of “adequate” public education in DC to inform further funding revisions. The commission did not study the “appropriate role for the District in funding and/or finding buildings for charter schools,” although that was a key topic of conversation.

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A Creative Test

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From “Schools We Can Envy” in the New York Review of Books:

Faced with the relentless campaign against teachers and public education, educators have sought a different narrative, one free of the stigmatization by test scores and punishment favored by the corporate reformers. They have found it in Finland. [...]

Finland has spent the past forty years developing a different education system, one that is focused on improving the teaching force, limiting student testing to a necessary minimum, placing responsibility and trust before accountability, and handing over school- and district-level leadership to education professionals.

To an American observer, the most remarkable fact about Finnish education is that students do not take any standardized tests until the end of high school. They do take tests, but the tests are drawn up by their own teachers, not by a multinational testing corporation. The Finnish nine-year comprehensive school is a “standardized testing-free zone,” where children are encouraged to know, to create, and to sustain natural curiosity.”

The entire article is certainly worth a read, but I was particularly struck by the emphasis on “the development of each child as a thinking, active, creative person” — all qualities that are not only outside the realm of standardized test-taking, but that are arguably more essential to long-term development than the material on a standardized test. So what do you think? Do the words that we use to discuss public education reform themselves need reforming?

Following Presidents Day

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I see a great nation, upon a great continent, blessed with a great wealth of natural resources. Its hundred and thirty million people are at peace among themselves; they are making their country a good neighbor among the nations. I see a United States which can demonstrate that, under democratic methods of government, national wealth can be translated into a spreading volume of human comforts hitherto unknown, and the lowest standard of living can be raised far above the level of mere subsistence.

But here is the challenge to our democracy: In this nation I see tens of millions of its citizens — a substantial part of its whole population — who at this very moment are denied the greater part of what the very lowest standards of today call the necessities of life. [...]

It is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope — because the Nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposes to paint it out. We are determined to make every American citizen the subject of his country’s interest and concern; and we will never regard any faithful law-abiding group within our borders as superfluous.

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

If I know aught of the spirit and purpose of our Nation, we will not listen to Comfort, Opportunism, and Timidity. We will carry on.

– President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Second Inaugural Address (1937)

Around Town: February 17-20

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Enjoy the long weekend, Greater Washington! Some great events are right around the corner …

CIVILIZATION (all you can eat) at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (641 D Street NW)

Six hungry city-dwellers scramble for sustenance in this provocative vaudeville of American enterprise and ingenuity, featuring an award-winning DC cast. Performance on Saturday at 8 PM and Sunday at 7 PM; nab your tickets here.

“Pre-Mardi Gras” Celebration at Downtown Cluster’s Geriatric Day Care Center (at Xi Omega Center, 4411 14th Street NW)

Line dancing, hand dancing, music by DJ- Mr. “C,” plus a light meal on Friday at 7PM. Proceeds to help provide therapeutic care and supportive services to at-risk older persons so that they remain in the community. Call (202) 347-7527 to purchase your tickets.

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